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Apple Working on 'Find My Watch' and Third-Party Watch Complications, 'TVKit' Dev Tools for Apple TV
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It's OK to believe. But belief/faith exists in the absence of evidence, and it's often necessary to ignore evidence in order to maintain belief. (I'll skip the examples, as this post would then belong in Religion/Politics.)
I have a contrary belief. I believe that Apple Watch is intended to be a bridge product on the road to keyboard-free computing. If we are to have self-driving cars, we must have accurate voice control. If we are to be liberated from desktops and laptops, we must have accurate voice input. Keyboarding is impractical on a 42mm touchscreen, just as it's impractical when driving a car, suturing a surgical patient, or pulling a casserole out of the oven. In order to have that world, Siri and her siblings will have to earn our trust. Trust that can't be earned if we never interact with them.
Opinion: We are never going to have humanoid robots a la Isaac Asimov, despite Honda's ASIMO (where's the "V," Honda?). We are going to have disembodied voice interaction with a world filled with special-purpose robotics. Siri, Cortana, HAL, Star Trek's "Computer," or Samantha in Her... Soon. Very, very soon. Most assuredly, with enough safeguards that we won't be ejected from pod bay airlocks or subjugated to the will of the Matrix. To have this kind of "anywhere access" to our "assistant," all we need is positive identity verification. Enter Touch ID and similar user-supplied keys.
We'll stay with Apple, Amazon, Microsoft, Google - whoever manages our personal data - because the uncertainties related to "firing" one "upstairs maid," "valet" or "personal assistant" and "training" the next will be enough to deter casual switching (it's the same reason most of us keep going back to the same dentist). There may be more money riding on the current TV ads for Siri, Cortana, and Google than most of us can possibly imagine.
I've been a fast touch-typist since around 1970, so keyboard input is just fine by me. But I also suspect that for every adept touch typist, there may be dozens of hunt-and-peck typists. Voice input is not only for the vision-impaired, but for the keyboard-impaired as well. One of the reasons touchscreen devices are so popular is that they are less dependent upon a keyboard. And damn, why wouldn't I want to stand around and tell Siri to do something, rather than sit in front of a real keyboard or trying to "touch" on a virtual keyboard that lacks tactile feedback? Should I wish for an iPad with tactile feedback, or skip it altogether in favor of, "Hey Siri?"
I was showing my Watch to my 80-year-old aunt, who has yet to master leaving voice mail messages, no less boot a PC. I started demonstrating voice input for Messages, and let it run while our conversation continued (she didn't realize the "tape" was still rolling). Every word she uttered was accurately recorded, including the "Oh my god!!!!" she exclaimed when she realized it was her words scrolling by on that little display. Only the punctuation was lacking. None of the "training" required in the days of Dragon Naturally Speaking and its predecessors. No, "Auntie, please speak slowly and distinctly."
Is it perfect? Not yet, but it's getting better every day. I've had remarkably good experiences with voice input. Others will undoubtedly have contrary experiences - that's the nature of any developing technology. Certainly, once "once burned, twice cautious..." I've yet to have a car's hands-free system successfully access my phone's contact list ("Call Mom" "Did you mean, Call Don?"). But Siri has proven to be far better. I'm looking forward to having a car with CarPlay. For me, I see not only light, but green hills and blue sky at the end of the tunnel.
Now that we have Apple iOS products as small as a wristwatch, when is Apple going to make a keychain?
Find My Keys -- the next killer app.
Find My Keys -- the next killer app.
Wifi Support
The Broadcom BCM43342 in the Apple Watch is Bluetooth 4.0 + HS, FM, and IEEE 802.11 a/b/g/n. So the matter of using wifi on the watch is probably not hardware restricted.
The Broadcom BCM43342 in the Apple Watch is Bluetooth 4.0 + HS, FM, and IEEE 802.11 a/b/g/n. So the matter of using wifi on the watch is probably not hardware restricted.
If everyone followed your logic, there would never be a "version 2" of any technology-based product, Apple or otherwise.
From a marketing and customer standpoint, I agree with the OP.
Most people probably don't care what the correct technical term is, as used within the watch making industry.
- "Complications" sounds negative.
- It derives from how much more difficult it becomes to make a mechanical watch as additional watch face features are added.
- It is neither self-explanatory nor user-friendly to those who aren't already aware of the technical terminology.
- Such people (being most of the target market) shouldn't have to "look it up" in order to understand what it refers to.
I appreciate that this was likely a no-win issue for Apple. Call them "complications" and get criticism like this. Or call them something else ("watch face extras") and get accused of dumbing things down. But I still think that, on balance, a more user-friendly definition should have won the day.
OH there it is!!! on my wrist!
This actually made me laugh, on a serious note though. Find my iPhone for the watch would be a little more convenient. Especially when it comes to "Lost mode" this would be ideal for finding your phone quickly.
If you think Apple is going to deliver what you are implying above, think again... unless your definition of "reasonable fee" is close to or higher than what you pay now. Nobody- Apple included- has interest in delivering everything we want at a huge discount. The math doesn't work except for us consumers locked upon a dream and ignoring the business realities.
What (I suspect) he's referring to is how much better other boxes are thanTV in terms of content deals, etc. I own many
That said, anytime there are rumors of a new little box from Apple, I get excited. I hope they finally are going to take this thing seriously. If little players like Roku can seem to get to so much done, just think what the full muscle and innovation of Apple could accomplish if they would just get with it!
Huh...
Well, I guess I'm just confused then.
To me... there is only what I described (awesome), & what exists now (sucky). I can't imagine in what ways a Roku is that much better than an Apple TV, they both seem like HEAVILY gimped products that can't free the consumer from an oppressive relationship with cable providers in a meaningful way, and are at best, sad little band-aids over the gaping wound that is cable companies.
I am NOT holding out hope that this regime will be toppled soon... by Apple, or anybody else- I don't even know if it's possible.
My sole point is: these set top boxes, until they can truly replace your cable box, are a bit redundant, boring, and pointless. Kind of like a less than full featured web browser, with a few video websites bookmarked, then displayed on a TV... in my opinion. I don't see the draw.
As I said, I think there are currently ZERO good choices in set top boxes, because none of them simplify anything, nor solve a problem. You still pay your normal cable bill, plus your Netflix, plus your Hulu, and now... I suppose you could pay HBO seperately as well. Wow! Remarkable... no wonder this segment is rapidly taking over & is soooo exciting . No wait... the opposite of that.
This market segment is stagnated & literally cannot go anywhere unless the content providers get on board.
Thus..... it sounds very very silly to me to say something like "oooh, Apple is getting crushed" in this area. By what? One crappy meaningless product is slightly better than another crappy meaningless product?? I stand by what I said- to me it's impossible to "crush" in this segment at all, unless you bring a device partnered with a service that allows cable abandonment.
"In horology, the study of clocks and watches, a complication refers to any feature in a timepiece beyond the simple display of hours and minutes."
So this is a perfect choice of word.
HobeSoundDarryl
macrumors G5
That's your opinion. Here's another: I originally bought an (first)
TV to be a replacement for a CD jukebox (remember those?). This was really using the "new" TV as an "iPod for your TV". It brought iTunes playlists to the best sound system in my house. It had nothing to do with "replacing a cable box" or a cable service. And it was- and still is- great.It also replaced photo albums. Again, nothing to do with a "cable box", but no less useful.
Home movies? Convert, drop into iTunes and now they were readily available on demand... no more projectors & screens to set up. And again, no "cable box" to replace.
This is all real, tangible utility- things people can enjoy whether or not this little box ever can replace Cable Television as we know it. I find great value at $99 or $249 (for the first gen) for any one of those, not "redundant, boring, and pointless".
Roku has basically gone nuts on gathering pretty much everything that can be streamed within one box. It's not a cable TV service replacement either but it does what
TV has been trying to do lately times about 10 (adding just about every source of video "apps" available). That's how it outdoes TV now.The rest of what you say- while applicable, and I can even agree with some of that- is heavy on a dream and light on reality. The idea that an Apple or anyone else is going to be able to fully replace what we already get from cable TV in some better form at some better price is high imagination with low chance of success. Why? Who controls the broadband pipes through which any such solution entirely depends? For an Apple to get to plug in and for us consumers to get exactly what we want at some big discount, who is going to take the hit? Not Apple, not us, not the broadband toll master... who's left? Content creators can't take the huge hit to give us our big discount without probably cutting the quality or breadth & depth of the shows we covet. So if it's not Apple, not cable (broadband) and not content creators, who's left? That would be us. And we're the ones wanting everything for nearly nothing.
You don't see the draw? That's fine. Maybe none of them are for you? But there's plenty to like if what one likes is there. It is the best music collection source I've ever had. It's our photo albums on demand. It's our home movie collection on demand. It's our CD & DVD collection on demand. It's what used to be Blockbuster on demand. It's Podcasts/Vodcasts on demand. And on and on... ALL on what is probably the biggest and best screen in the house hooked to the best speaker setup in the house.
Will it ever be a cable TV replacement service? I have my doubts. It sounds like Apple is trying to bring something to market, which sounds like a limited selection of channels bundled together like a basic cable package. Apple will then get their cut and the cable provider will still get theirs (either by broadband rates or by some requirement to have a cable TV subscription).
To the "Apple is getting crushed" bit, I believe his point was relative, as in relative to what other set-top box makers are doing, he wishes Apple would get with it. I wish that too. I doubt Apple is actually getting crushed but we generally have high expectations of Apple. When we see little players like Roku outdoing them in certain ways, some of us will vent some disappointment. It's not like Roku can outspend Apple to close such deals. It's not like Roku has more human staff to try to forge such deals. What Roku DOES seem to have is FOCUS. Their smaller staff and much, MUCH more limited finances paired with focus seems to have accomplished much more than the mighty Apple... not because the latter can't compete but because they seem to put their focus elsewhere.
The hope is that maybe the giant has awakened and will actually try to do something with this set-top box THIS time. Will that be the full cable TV replacement you imply? Probably not. But a chunk of the want is for Apple to "catch up" to what little players have already done and hopefully take a few more steps ahead. It's not like they lack the funds or other resources such that such a want would be impossible.
What you imagine (awesome) vs. what there is (sucky) applies to anything. I can imagine new rMBP for $100 and iPads for $50. That would be awesome too. But Apple wants to be paid well for what it makes... and so do the content creators of visual entertainment, and providers of the pipes to deliver such entertainment, etc. I can desire the dream of "everything I want" even "commercial free" as much as the next guy but then one needs to think it through. As soon as we pair that dream with "for a fraction of what I pay now" everyone else that could otherwise make it happen loses interest. More simply, the other players can be moved to deliver "awesome" but they find the concept of taking a massive haircut sucky. Show them all how they make more money by changing from sucky to awesome and they'll get it done quickly.
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